Guest post
Esports, also known as electronic sports, is now big business as you know. The top tournaments offer multi-million dollar prize pools and the most talented esports players can earn millions of dollars every year. There is even a transfer market with top players being bought and sold for six-figure sums.
It is estimated by the year 2020, esports will be a billion dollar industry. Its growth has been phenomenal and it is only going to get bigger and better as gaming technologies evolve.
Top esports games of 2017
In terms of total prize pools, Dota 2, a game developed by the Valve Corporation, is head and shoulders above the pack. So far this year there have apparently been 71 Dota 2 tournaments (of all shapes and sizes) with a combined prize money fund in excess of $32 million, although the International championship accounts for two-thirds of that.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular in terms of high-level player numbers and the number of tournaments played (2,500+). While the total prize money of $37+ million for CSGO is way below that of Dota 2, it is still a very respectable showing. Other games such as League of Legends, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and several others have all broken the million dollar total prize money bracket in 2017, too.
The International Dota 2 Championship 2017
This event was held in Seattle in August. The total prize pool was an immense $24,787,916, making it the richest tournament in esports history to-date. Thousands of fans flocked to the KeyArena to watch their heroes in action while many other streamed the battles live over the internet.
It was won by Team Liquid who collected a cool $10.8 million with Newbee coming in second place scoring a tidy $3.95 million.
Top esports players of 2017
Due to their success at the International 7, the five members of Team Liquid (KuroKy, Miracle, Matumbaman, MinD_ContRol and GH) are the current top earners in esports in 2017, each with over $2 million to their name.
Chinese players have made the most money overall ($63m+). Spencer “Gorilla” Ealing is the UK’s highest ranked esports player. So far this year he has won $250,000 playing FIFA 17 and he came first in the recently held FIFA Interactive World Cup 2017 tournament.
This is pure tournament winnings, most of these pro players will each be earning a salary on top plus there will numerous endorsements and other financial streams open to them.
Top esports leagues
The Dota Major Championships is one of the most lucrative leagues in esports. League of Legends (LoL) is also very profitable, with several different leagues such as the LoL World Championships, LoL Pro League and the LoL Challenger Series having multi-million prize pools.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Call of Duty World League is massive, as is Blizzcon and the IEM leagues. In terms of overall size the Electronic Sports League (ESL) is the main player. The league has sub-divisions for most games, thousands of tournaments and tens of thousands of players.
Upcoming UK events
As we said, esports is now big business with millions of dollars on offer to the world’s best players. Do you have what it takes to be one of the top esport players in the world? Well, there’s only one way to find out, get involved and test yourself against other like-minded players.
A great place to start is at ESL Play, it holds qualifier tournaments on a regular basis for all the major esports games. There are single-player games such as FIFA as well as team games. These are based on a level of progression, so if you are new to the world of competitive esports, you begin in the lower-tier events. When you start winning these smaller events, you then move up to to national and possibly global tournaments.
Gone are the days when spending hours playing computers couldn’t earn you a living. For the elite players, esports offers a true career path. Can you think of a better way to earn thousands of dollars while doing something you really enjoy?
Note: Some data is taken from tournament prize money that the Esports Earnings website finds sources for.
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